


Know Your Enemy

by 185cmbaekhyun, Semper_Sehun



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, CEO Kim Jongin | Kai, Detective Oh Sehun, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Ex-Best Friends, Humor, M/M, Or More Than That?, Slow Burn, crime investigation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 18:22:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30059649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/185cmbaekhyun/pseuds/185cmbaekhyun, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Semper_Sehun/pseuds/Semper_Sehun
Summary: As a popular and very well-known fashion designer, Kim Jongin was used to receiving a lot of hate. When he started to receive actual death threats, he hires a detective team to find out who wanted him dead. As it turned out, one of the detectives is his old ex-best friend from his school days. The only problem is, things between them didn't end too well...
Relationships: Kim Jongin | Kai/Oh Sehun
Comments: 9
Kudos: 55





	Know Your Enemy

**Author's Note:**

> We've been working on this project for quite a bit of time and today we can finally show you the first chapter! It was a lot of fun writing this together and we hope you guys will enjoy the fic ♥️

The wind was gently rustling the curtains in the dark office. Outside, a full moon was illuminating the city, shining above the skyscrapers of sleeping Seoul. The sky was almost cloudless, just a few of them ghosting over the wide surface of the night sky like wafts of fog. Autumn hadn’t quiet yet fallen upon the city, and the air still had that touch of a summer night to it, albeit a little colder already.

A silent tap could be heard in the dark office. A noise, so faint that one would have missed it if it weren't so quiet in the ill-lit room.

Somebody was there.

It had been hours since the last employee had left the building. Usually, this late in the night not a single soul was to be found in the large company building. Certainly, there were times when employees worked overtime, and occasionally deep into the night when a deadline needed to be met, but these usually weren’t the ones that needed access to the CEO’s office.

A step. Then another one.

The sound of shoes against the expensive parquet flooring resonated in the scarcely but stylishly furnished room. A shadow fell over the desk.

The rustling of clothes, the sound of a zipper.

Then, more steps. Whoever was there was moving again, quietly but with determination.

A few seconds later, the door fell shut and silence fell over the nightly scene again.

It was almost as if nobody had been there at all, if it weren’t for the carefully placed letter on the large desk that hadn’t been there yet when the CEO had left this evening.

Outside, the nightlife of Seoul was moving on, and it was like no one had witnessed this moment at all.

\---

The CEO heard a gentle knock rattle against his office door not long after he had urgently requested for his secretary's presence. 

Wendy's head popped up from behind the door frame, and despite the emergency, she still offered her boss a beaming smile.

"Boss, you have summoned me?"

"Come in," Jongin waved her in, not really in the mood to return the smile. However, Wendy was a constant ray of sunshine flitting through the office, which helped to keep Jongin's temper in check whenever they faced something unexpected. He hoped that would be the case this time too.

"I have something important to discuss with you. Have a seat please."

Jongin took a seat himself behind his desk as he watched Wendy gracefully sink into the chair across from him, the calmness of her expression twisting a little to one of a worry. 

"Is everything alright?"

"I'm afraid I can't answer that," Jongin said, sitting back against the chair. "What I'm about to tell you must stay between you and I only. Understood?"

Wendy nodded sharply, nerves immediately set on edge. "Okay. I'm officially worried."

Jongin took a second to appreciate her loyalty before he slid the letter over the surface of the desk. "Take a look at this."

The secretary's eyes swiftly but attentively poured over the content of the papers, until a faint frown etched in her brows.

"Is this--"

"That's what I want to figure out. Though it's indecipherable, it looks like a threat of some sort."

It was the first thing Jongin had spotted in the morning on his desk. It had been presented to him like a gift, placed to be found without any effort. It didn't really frighten Jongin in any way, unlike what the sender was probably hoping for. Nevertheless, Jongin knew he had to take matters into his own hands. After all, he had reasons to be a target for danger, and he also had people to protect along with his business.

"Who sent this?" Appalled, Wendy asked after setting the letter back onto the desk as if it could burn to the touch. 

"No idea. I found it on my desk this morning."

"Did you look at the security cameras?"

Jongin paused and clicked his tongue, still intrigued by the lack of evidence he'd found after meticulously checking the security footage over and over. 

"I have. There's nothing there. No one." He answered before letting out a concerned sigh. "Whoever this person is, they're smart."

"Should we call the cops?" Suggested Wendy.

"No, I don't think so. Not yet. I have a better idea for the time being." Jongin reached inside a drawer and pulled out a small business card, passing it over the desk towards Wendy as well. 

"I need you to get in touch with them. Schedule a meeting if possible."

Her frown shifted, became sceptical as she examined the card. "Who are these people?" 

"Private Investigators."

"Do you think they're-- Are they professionals? I've never heard of them."

She didn't sound pleased, but Jongin could understand where her suspicions stemmed from. He had to admit he was being pretty bold by resorting to that team instead of trying much of anything more trustworthy.

"Exactly. I want to keep things under the radar for now. They'd fit perfectly for the job. I've got good reviews on them."

It took Wendy a few more seconds to give in. At last, she shrugged and nodded, trusting her boss's intuition.

“Oh, before I forget it,” Jongin suddenly remembered.“Could you please write the mail in my name? I would have written it myself, but because of the meeting I don’t have the time and I want it to be sent as soon as possible.”

"Got it," She rose from the chair, tucked a loose strand of her behind her ear, before she asked. "But boss, do you think you'll be safe?"

Jongin hummed thoughtfully, scratching at his earlobe like he tended to do when something was bothering him. He looked up at the secretary in the end, and this time he found the spirit to shoot her a convincing small smile. 

"I can only hope so."

  
  


\---

  
  


The young, petite woman was typing away rapidly on the keyboard. Her fingers were flying over the keys, thoughtlessly pressing the button as she typed down the E-Mail for her boss. The request for their team had come in earlier that morning, but she hadn’t been able to check her emails yet. These days, their small company was busy and there was so much to do that sometimes, it took her forever to even complete the simple tasks.

More often than not, she was beginning to wish for a secretary to do the tasks she was doing. There were plenty of other things she could be doing right now like cleaning the weapons, sorting through some files they still needed to look at for another case her team was working on… Yet, she was here, answering and forwarding mails. Sejeong let out a sigh.

_“Dear sir or madam,_

_It has come to my attention that your company HYUNGSA_ _offers investigative services._

 _Unfortunately, I have been receiving threats in the form of letters for the past few weeks now, however, they have always arrived by mail. Upon entering my office this morning, however, I was quite shocked to see that a letter was lying on my desk. Of course, I initially assumed that my secretary had put it there but she vehemently denied doing that. The problem with that is that besides my secretary and me nobody has access to my office past working hours. I was the last one to leave last night, I even stayed a little longer than usual. And yet, the letter was there. Another issue is that I just assume that it is a threat as the letter is written in a code that I have yet to figure out how to solve. All the letters contain the same content_ _and you can find the latest one attached to this email_ _._

_As the CEO of a large company, I am well aware that often, certain individuals may send harmless threats and this is not the first time I have received any. However, it is the way that they keep coming over a longer amount of time that bothers me, coupled with the effort put into even creating a code. Ultimately, it was the fact that someone obviously must have entered my office at night though, to put it quite frankly: someone broke into my office and this is where I draw the line._

_Thus, I would be happy to arrange a meeting with your leading detectives to consult your services in the hopes of solving this mystery. As this has become a high priority as of now, I would be more than happy to meet up with your team as soon as possible to discuss the matter. I would be willing to pay an additional fee if you gave this case priority, however, I do understand if that is currently not possible._

_I would be happy to schedule an appointment with you, my secretary can be reached under the following address._

_Kind regards,_

_Kim Jongin_

_CEO of KAI_

Sejeong had been quite excited when she’d found the mail in their inbox. Not because she enjoyed other people being threatened, of course not, but when she’d seen that the mail stemmed from the owner of the high-end designer fashion brand KAI, she might have had a minor freak-out in front of the computer.

After having forwarded the mail to her boss, she opened the document that was attached to the file. Her eyes flitted over the code, brows furrowing. A few ideas to solve it popped up in her head, but just when she was about to reach for a pencil and a notepad, the door to the small office opened and someone stepped in.

“Time for the team meeting, Sejeong.” The middle-aged man was smiling at her, his head peeking through the half-opened door.

“Ah, of course. I’ll be there in a second.” She nodded and got up, having to leave behind the mysterious code for now. In case their small team would take on the mission, she would sooner than later have to figure it out anyways. With a last glance at the computer, Sejeong left the room, hoping that her boss would accept the mission. There was just something about it that caught her attention, and it wasn’t just the fact that the one asking for help was a famous designer and model. There was something else, something that she couldn’t quite pinpoint yet that made her think that this case wouldn’t be like any of those they’d solved up until now.

And if she’d known just how right she would be with that assumption, Sejeong might not have wished to accept the job as much as she did at that moment.

\---

The vast office was flooded by sunlight, the gentle whirring of the AC filling the silence. Kim Jongin was too restless to sit at his desk, instead standing at the window to look across the skyline of the city. 

Behind him, gracing the crisp white walls in an otherwise simplistically furnished room were dozens of magazine covers that ranged from those with models wearing his creations to himself being the one modelling them.

At the young age of 27, Kim Jongin had reached more in his career than most. What had begun with smaller modelling contracts then soon turned into larger ones, it eventually became the creation of a fashion empire where he was the creator and owner. While he had enjoyed modelling, it had been fashion design that had made his heart speed up, that had the gears in his mind moving. His creations had taken the fashion world by storm. Soon, the brand KAI was no longer a wonder in South Korea, it was the wonder of South Korea. And Jongin became the face of it, and the person behind it too. With a set of indescribably skilled designers and tailors, Jongin had built up a strong group of individuals that added their individual touch to the brand, making it even more unique. By now, it had been six years since his first clothing line went on sale. Ever since then, Jongin had never stopped working.

It was safe to say that he was a workaholic, but he didn’t mind too much. He loved his work, and staying overtime to work on designs or business meetings was just a part of it.

Naturally, with fame also came hate. Envy and malevolence had been thrown his way as long as he could remember, but usually it didn’t bother him too much. Threats were normal, he was a celebrity of some sort after all. However, when the threats were taking on incalculable dimensions even he began to worry.

The idea to contact a team of investigators had come to him a couple of times already, but today he’d finally taken the step. The team that he had chosen to confide in had been recommended to him by a close friend that had reported their impeccable service to him. Contacting the police wasn’t anything that Jongin wanted to do at this point as he didn’t want to cause any uproar, so he had figured that hitting up a team of private investigators would be able to save him from a media uproar. There was only so much about his private life that he wanted to share with the public, and he’d rather not have the news of him receiving such threats going viral.

He glanced at the expensive watch on his wrist. The clock read quarter to ten, it was time to head to his next meeting. Sending one last glance out of the window, the city of Seoul at his feet, Jongin turned around and left the room.

His secretary looked up when Jongin crossed her on his way to the elevator and he smiled at her as he walked before stopping, remembering something. “Wendy, did you finish the contracts for the new production site? I mailed you the signed document earlier, you only have to forward them to the company. Also I sent you the response to the application I received a couple days ago. I would kindly ask you to print it out, however, before you send it off please put it on my desk. I’d like to add a private note.”

His secretary, Wendy, smiled sweetly and nodded, her eyes never leaving him. “Of course, Mr. Kim. I also rescheduled one of your meetings this afternoon, I already added the change in your calendar so you don’t have to worry.”

“Wonderful. Thank you, Wendy. I’ll see you after the meeting.”

And with that, Jongin headed towards the elevator that would take him to the tenth floor where meetings with his co-designers usually took place. When the elevator doors closed in front of him, he wondered if, by the time the meeting finished, the investigation team might have gotten back to him already.

\---

  
  


After an awfully long day of tiresome meetings and phone calls where he had to pretend everything was fine and his life wasn't in jeopardy, Jongin finally called it a night. He loosened the tie around his neck and popped open a few buttons of his shirt, as though to free himself of the weight of his responsibilities for a while. It always worked, and he sighed deeply as he felt himself instantly relaxing.

The lights in the empty corridors were already dim as he headed back to his office to gather his things and leave. Wendy materialized by the door just as Jongin grabbed his car keys. She was also ready to leave, with a purse in hand and hair loosened down. 

"The… team of investigators replied. They're coming over for a meeting tomorrow morning." She still couldn't put much confidence in the team, but the flash of optimism in her eyes was a start. 

Likewise, an assured grin split Jongin's face. "Great! Can you have the meeting room ready for their presence?"

"Sure, boss." Wendy nodded, obedient as ever. "Have a good night."

"You too, Wendy. See you tomorrow." He clasped a hand on her shoulder briefly before walking away, bringing a faint blush to her cheeks that Jongin chose to ignore.

With tiredness having suddenly melted away from him, Jongin drove home with something akin to hopefulness thrumming just beneath his skin. With that, he managed to have a dreamless but peaceful night of sleep.

  
  


\---

  
  


"Mr Kim. The Hyungsa Team is here for the meeting." Wendy announced as soon as Jongin stepped foot into his office the following morning. The CEO set his briefcase onto his desk and turned to his secretary with a confident smile.

"Please, let them in. I'll be upstairs in a minute."

Only a day had passed since they’d sent the email to the investigative team. Although Jongin had expected them to get back to him quickly due to his status, he hadn’t expected it to be that quick. Needless to say, he was rather relieved that they seemed to have an interest in picking up the case and that things were moving quicker than originally anticipated.

After checking his calendar on his phone, Jongin noticed that the meeting was to be held in one of the large meeting rooms on their floor. Sending himself a short glance in the floor-length mirror next to his desk, he took a deep breath and headed towards the door. Upon reaching the room, he spotted two men already waiting for him. One of them, a middle-aged man, was lean and tall. He wore a deerstalker hat on top of his head, all Sherlock Holmes styled, and Jongin wondered if that was intentional, or if he needed that to feel more like a detective to call himself one. Apart from that, his outfit was quite nice. By his side, the other man looked insanely tall. Weirdly enough, he carried a set of camera cranes that came forth from deep within his backpack, its gears extending all the way up to his shoulders to support two small go-pro cameras, one on each side, as if to film his surroundings.

Jongin wondered how he ended up in that line of work or if anyone ever took him seriously. Jongin wasn't quite sure if he could. 

"Kim Jongin-ssi. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Detective Yoo Jaesuk, this is one of my teammates, Lee Kwangsoo." The man with the unusual hat introduced, and Jongin curtly shook hands with them.

"Nice to meet you as well."

"The rest of the members will be here shortly. They got held up at the elevator." Jaesuk explained. He looked to be the leader, well experienced in the field. 

Curious, Jongin asked. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, it's fine. Detective Oh is having one of his brooding days. Don't worry, he's one of our youngest. He can get like that sometimes."

Jongin arched a brow. Off to the side, Kwangsoo frowned in confusion. "Can he? This is the first time I’ve seen him so moody."

In return, Kwangsoo received a quick smack on his shoulder from Jaesuk, who turned back to Jongin with a broad, friendly smile. "They'll be here soon." He repeated to assure the CEO. Jongin thought they were quite peculiar not only in their looks but also in behaviour. Nothing to be worried about probably. If anything, they were entertaining to be around. 

"I see," Jongin led them into the meeting room. "Please have a seat."

"He's so handsome," Jongin distinctly heard Kwangsoo whisper. 

"Shut up!" Jaesuk hissed at him. Though he smirked to himself, Jongin pretended to hear nothing.

"Would you like some coffee?" Offered the CEO as the detectives settled nicely into their seats. Jaesuk adjusted his tie discreetly before he glanced at Jongin with a surprised smile. 

"No, we're fine. Thank you."

Soon after, the doors clicked open again, and a pair of pretty-looking short women walked inside timidly. 

"Hello, sorry. We're really sorry for being late." One of them said, bowing repeatedly towards the head of the table where Jongin sat. The other one with the heavy makeup didn't quite bother bowing or saying hello. She bore confidence in her eyes and high heeled steps alike.

"Not a problem. We haven't started yet. Come in, please." Jongin watched amusedly as the two ladies scurried around to get themselves a seat. 

"These are our Sejeong and Minyoung." Jaesuk introduced them as well as if he had done it a thousand times before, but every time he did, he did it pridefully. However, noticing something was off, he glanced over at the door, brow creasing slightly. 

"Where's the other one?" He asked, waiting for the last member's arrival. Sejeong cocked her head towards the corridors, visible from behind the crystal floor to ceiling doors. 

"Here he comes."

The last detective strode in quietly, shoulders set straight. His piercing gaze stabbed Jongin as soon as he stepped into the room, and while Jongin offered him a welcoming smile, the detective's face remained ice-cold. 

"Hello, Sehun. Long time no see." Jongin greeted, much to the astonishment of everyone in the room.

**Author's Note:**

> We would love to hear your thoughts and feedback, so please leave Kudos and comments, we appreciate it! ♥️ You can find a moodboard for the fic [here](https://twitter.com/SehunSemper/status/1371469704112529409?s=09).


End file.
